The Japanese manga mag (which gets all the reveals on most major Square Enix titles) reveals that Final Fantasy VIII's Laguna Loire will join the cast. He'll bring with him a machine gun as his standard weapon, and some hefty fire power. You'll be able to make Laguna run around while gunning away, and also extend your combos by holding down the fire button.

Expect to get a first official online look at Laguna over the next couple of weeks.

Laguna in FFVIII.

Jump also has a look at the "world map" feature that we mentioned in our recent preview. A screenshot in the magazine shows Lightning and what appears to be a party of two characters moving about a 3D field. It's unclear how this system will be incorporated into the game, but as with Laguna we're expecting more details to surface over the next couple of weeks.